This time last year Michael Woods was preparing to race his final Tour de France, but despite now being retired from professional road racing he certainly isn’t putting his feet up this year either. The Canadian is embracing a new test, racing more than 200 miles across the Flint Hills of Kansas at Unbound Gravel.
“I raced pro for ten years on the road but I’ve been following the sport of gravel for a long time now and I’ve always been really interested in it, and this is the biggest gravel event in the world so that’s why I’m here,” Woods told Cyclingnews in Emporia ahead of taking to the start line on Saturday. “I want to see what it’s all about, test myself.
“I’m a bit nervous for it. I haven’t done a race or a ride this long ever in my life so I’m excited to just go into the unknown a bit.”
It is not the first gravel race that Woods has taken on, with his efforts in the discipline this year including the 111km long UCI Gravel World Series event The Gralloch, where he came seventh, and The Traka 200 – which is around 200 kilometres, not 200 miles like the Unbound 200.
“I feel like I’m woefully underprepared, but I’m trending in the right direction. I’m game fitter with every race,” said Woods when asked about his form. “I didn’t have a cycling-specific build up to the start of this year. I was SkiMo racing [Ski Mountaineering], and I’ve been also trying to focus on being a bit of a better dad so I’m not on the bike as much as I’d like to be from a performance perspective. But I’m having a blast doing the training that I’m doing and doing the racing that I’m doing.”
“It’ll be interesting to see how I hold up for this race, the longest race. The longest ride I’ve done is The Traka this year, which was for me just over six hours, not the nine plus or 10 hours that this is going to be, so definitely those final three hours will be a big test of endurance but you never know – hopefully I can do well.”
Despite his cycling pedigree on the road the rider, with three Vuelta a España stage victories to his name and 13 Grand Tour starts, isn’t taking anything for granted.
When asked what he would deem a success at the event his response was, “finishing – I’m serious”.
“I mean I’ve done some of the biggest races, but this is a long race,” said Woods. “I’ve heard about so many mechanicals. I have a lot of friends who’ve flown out here from Europe and done this race and never finished just because of breaking a derailleur or having a flat, so for me the big objective is first to finish.”
Though that doesn’t mean he still doesn’t have an eye to results beyond that overriding primary goal.
“Getting a top 10 would be super cool too,” said Woods.
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